Subject: Toronto Picket Report - April 17 1999
From: wulfen@NOSPAMtotal.net (Wulfen - www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/)
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 02:36:37 GMT

Enthetans: Android Cat, Artemis, Deep Wog, Wulfen (4 picketers and one anonymous doughnut supplier)

Leaflets: Around 700, maybe 750. I had 9 envelopes full of 50 each (or a few more), and 2 envelopes which had 100 or more leaflets. Add to that the leaflets from my box of Deana Holmes' "Scientology Indicted: Last Days of a Scientologist", quite a few. And then Android Cat brought some Xenu/Lisa leaflets. Now I have only a few Lisa leaflets and only one of Roland's "Scientology: Insane Cult". I'd better get photocopying.

The saga:

Well, I arrived at Starbucks at 9:30, no-one else there. Gregg showed up a few minutes later, with Alan Barclay right behind him. Gregg, as it turns out, was already booked to clean up Munn's Creek near where he lives (Earth Day cleanup), so couldn't stay to picket. Fortunately, he dropped off four signs and 200 leaflets (which came in handy). Artemis and me waited for a while, but no-one else showed up. Just us, eh, we thought..

Well, we get kitted out and wander down to the Org. Surprise, surprise.. My activity over the past week has caused some enturbulation, there are 10-15 Scientologists there. Far, far more than you'll see around the Org most other days. They are rather surprised to see our number.. "There's only two of them!?" remarked one rather surprised lady Scientologist.

Let me take the time to crow a bit here.. I am at Cause over the Toronto Org. I booked the picket, and the Org danced to the tune I played. Whenever we go there to picket, all these At Effect OT's show up. I Caused them to be all MESTy today. I wonder when it will sink in that their Saturday activity was dictated by a Suppressive Person?

We met the police officer.. PC Ralph (didn't give a last name) #1072 (I think). Off duty that day, hourly time and a half rate paid for by the Org (*ka-ching*). He gave us the 30 second version of the ten minute address (redaction: Be good, don't be bad.) given by PC Thompson at the last picket.

We started picketing. Artemis set up a small "point" position near the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation. Naturally, the camera guy set up and started taping Artemis passing out leaflets. Artemis moved down to the other end of the Org (*snicker*). After a short while, the camera guy moved down, and started taping from inside the Org's main entrance. Artemis moved back. The camera guy didn't follow. Well, if they want to tape us, we can make their tape interesting. Right? ;-)

There were two women with cameras, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Again, they tried to be surreptitious about taking our pictures. It didn't work. (Yes, ladies, we do notice when you snap pictures of us.) I also offered some unsolicited suggestions as to what kind of picture should be taken (ie plenty of me, so she could plaster her wall with pictures of me).

The morning passed pretty uneventfully. Andy Hill and Dan (Is his name Dan? It's immaterial, truly. He's the guy who was pestering Gregg at the October 1998 picket and me at the December 1998 picket) engaged us in conversation a few times, which I recommend if you want to hear a person (Dan) producing Hubbardian concepts as though they were his ideas. He didn't get it when I said, "That's only if you accept the Hubbardian version".

Finally, I told Dan that if he wanted to talk to me, he could email me. He's said he's on the net, has even seen my website. He also said that he didn't want to get lots of email from me (ie he thought I might spam him, heh). I told him to get a Hotmail or Rocketmail account, use that to contact me, and if he didn't want to hear from me again, just ditch the account. Simple problem to a simple solution, wonder if he will email me?

Also during the morning, Granfalloon did a pastry supply run. Granfalloon is a former Co$ staffer, who is thoroughly fed up with Scientology, just not willing to picket for personal reasons. That's fine, just by providing his story (which I will be posting separately) he's done us all a favour. Granfalloon walked through the picket, giving Artemis and me a pastry each. The exchange went like this:

Wulfen: "You, sir.. You look like you could use a Ron the Criminal flyer!"

Granfalloon: "Trade ya." (ie for a pastry)

I got a brownie with walnuts, and it was sooo good. If you're reading this, Granfalloon, thanks again.

Finally, lunchtime. The food was good, and the rest (after carryig around a heavy pack full of leaflets) was a relief.

After lunch we wandered back, and as we didn't see the police officer, we just started picketing. Well, you'd think we were stripping on the sidewalk. Scientologists bearing leaflets started boiling out of that Org like ants out of a stirred up nest. Within minutes, we had all our theta handlers back.

The police officer wandered back exactly on time (we were a bit early), and later made the comment that the picket was like those coyote/sheep dog cartoons, where the coyote and the dog say hi to each other, punch in to work, and then start chasing each other. Which is an apt comparison, so long as there is a police officer there. When the Scientologists aren't under the gaze of the long arm of the law (argh, mixed up metaphor), they revert to bad behaviour. Surprise, surprise.

Quite soon after, Deep Wog and Android Cat showed up, in that order. Not bad, now we were four. Deep Wog took some pictures, and then joined us on the picket lines. He was having a hard time, I didn't have any more Xenu leaflets for him to pass out. Poor DW had to make do: he had a few copies of the Lisa McPherson leaflet. And then a few more, and a few more. He was doing ok, he passed out quite a few.

The weather held up quite well, despite the threatened "occasional showers". We got the odd rainy sprinkle, but that was it. How come it never rains on the SP's? The cloud was intermittent, but the threatened rain never really materialized.

Finally, Artemis ran out of leaflets (yet again), and I didn't have any more to resupply him with. Also, it was 4:55, and probably time to think about packing it in. I told Artemis that when he'd passed out the last two leaflets in his hands (one donated by me), I'd call the picket. Thirty seconds later, look what happens. I told the police officer that we were off, and we repaired to our post-picket watering hole.

Vignettes that didn't fit anywhere else:

We got a DA leaflet. I'll post the text separately, but the front page went as follows (HTML added by me for emphasis):

WHAT would you do if these people took your child's picture and put it up on the internet?

I made a lady Scientologist laugh. Artemis was passing out many leaflets by saying "Green leaflets! They're green!" (It's amazing what will make people want leaflets.) I tried to plug my leaflets, as in "White leaflets are better than green ones!", but it didn't work. I mentioned to the body router, "Green leaflets are squirrel tech" and she howled. I'm a funny guy..

See you on Dianetics Day, cult.

Wulfen's ANTI-Scientology Website:
http://www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/

Toronto Picket Page:
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/8412/

-- Science is a method, not an ideology. --

Click here for some additional truth about the Scientology crime syndicate: XENU.NET

Further facts about this criminal empire may be found at Operation Clambake and FACTNet.